PIA blacklists passengers for smoking, assaulting crew during flight

In a rare move, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) CEO on Thursday directed authorities to blacklist passengers who were found smoking on a Birmingham-bound flight.

PIA CEO Nayyar Hayat directed authorities to blacklist passengers with immediate effect, who smoked on flight PK-791 from Islamabad to Birmingham. “The concerned passengers were not only smoking on the flight but also misbehaved with cabin crew,” PIA spokesperson said in a statement.

The move comes a day after police in the United Kingdom took a British-Pakistani man into custody for using abusive language and misbehaving with a flight attendant on the PK-791.

According to reports, a group of men was found smoking in an aircraft lavatory during the flight. When confronted by a flight attendant, they began misbehaving and one of them verbally abused her. The incident was reported to the pilot, who alerted British police. The police were on hand at the airport to detain one of the men after the flight landed in Birmingham.